


Learning Magic

by EurydicaeQuercus



Series: Enasalin is supposed to mean Victory [2]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening
Genre: Anders Being a Healer, Arguing, Gen, Hallucinations, Light Angst, Use of Lyrium
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2020-02-15 14:30:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18671584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EurydicaeQuercus/pseuds/EurydicaeQuercus
Summary: Enasalin Mahariel has hidden her magic since childhood. Now, having left her clan and feeling more and more unable to ignore it, she requests the assistance of Velanna and Anders to relearn the skills which were now so rusty. It does not go well.





	Learning Magic

Anders honestly didn’t know if he’d ever seen the Warden Commander so thoroughly pissed off in all the time he’d known her. Except maybe when she’d stepped in after the templars had threatened him—she _had_ gone a bit ballistic back then. But she was also very angry now, and the urge to duck under a nearby table until the mood blew over was near overwhelming. That might only make her more irritated though, so he decided to take his chances by remaining stock-still next to the table instead.

“Why? Is magic? So difficult?” growled the Warden Commander through deep breaths as she tried to calm herself back down.

“It would be much _less_ difficult if you would just sit still and try to control yourself!” snapped Velanna, who looked about on the verge of having an aneurysm and was gripping her staff so tightly her knuckles were going white. 

Anders decided to tactfully stay out of the argument, slowly backing away towards the door.

“I _AM_ —” yelled the Commander, before catching herself and trying again. “I _am_ sitting still, and this is about as ‘in control’ as I’m going to get, so _try again_.”

“You need to drink the lyrium first, _Warden Commander_ ,” growled Velanna, still angry with her.

The lyrium bottle was still sitting on the table, and Anders quickly made the decision to go and get it for the Commander before she took Velanna’s head off. And possibly his own. As he went to pass the bottle to her though, he hesitated.

Over the course of the exercise, the Commander had been getting more and more irate as she repeatedly drank the lyrium and was unable to take control of her magic. Her face was now extremely pale, and the veins were standing out on her forehead. Her eyes were darting back and forth, and she was shaking slightly where she sat. She wouldn’t be able to do much more of this.

“Anders!” she hissed, noticing his hesitation.

He quickly gave her the bottle, concern for his own safety quickly overriding any concern for hers. She snatched it from his hand, and was already drinking it before he could even say a word about stopping soon. Velanna was simply looking on in infuriated silence, almost as annoyed as the Warden Commander herself over her failure to master her magic. This could be bad.

The effect of the lyrium was instantaneous. One the one hand, she didn’t pass out like she had last time. On the other hand, _she didn’t pass out like last time_. Instead, her eyes began to glow and her hand began to shake, clenching harder and harder around the bottle, until, with a deafening _crack_ it shattered between her fingers. There were jagged cuts all over the palm of her hand, but she didn’t seem to notice at all.

Anders could guess what was happening—the lyrium was running through her head, making her memories louder and blinding her to the outside world, while magic flowed violently through her entire body. For a more practised mage, that would have been no problem, they could have brought themselves back out of the trance and in control of their body. Commander Mahariel was many things, but an experienced mage was not one of them. This was bad. This was very, very bad. He needed to do something.

“Commander? Can you hear me?” he asked, kneeling by her side and putting a hand up to stop Velanna as she tried to move over to them. She would only heighten the Commander’s agitation.

“Anders?” mumbled the Commander, her eyes flicking back and forth, unseeing.

“Yes, yes, it’s me. You remember me Commander?” he asked, in as soothing a voice as he could muster.

“Anders—the templars! They need to die,” she whispered, her voice hoarse.

“No templars!” he said quickly, sensing the situation escalating. “No templars in here Commander—there’s no need for violence now—”

He was cut off as the Commander staggered to her feet, pushing him backwards, looking straight ahead at the invisible templars.

“You won’t take him,” she muttered, her hand reaching for her blade—a glint of silver in the light—this was very bad. “You won’t take any of us...you have no power here _shemlen_.”

She practically spat the last word, like it was poison in her mouth. Magical energy was crackling all over her body, through her dagger, a light, electrical blue.

“Velanna, some assistance please!” he shouted at the mage, who’d been standing in shock for the last minute or so.

“Yes, of course!” yelled Velanna, snapping out of her trance. 

With a whirl of her staff, she erected a forcefield around the Commander, who had already begun moving blindly forward, electricity crackling off her body, now bouncing off the inside of the forcefield. Anders didn’t know what exactly having electricity flowing through your body at that intensity would do to a person, but it was probably nothing good.

“We need to stop the electricity!” he yelled and Velanna frowned.

“I could freeze her?” she said, shrugging.

“Do _not_ freeze her!”

“I have an idea—stand back Anders!” she yelled, then, with an elaborate movement, she withdrew the forcefield, and, almost as quickly as it disappeared, cast a spell that made the Commander instantly drop to her knees, then the ground, as she fell unconscious.

“Is she safe?” asked Anders, panting slightly with stress.

“She’s asleep—I don’t that counts as safe with the Commander,” she sneered, though her brow was furrowed with worry.

“We need to take a break,” said Anders, sighing deeply.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with her,” said Velanna, scowling deeply. “None of the mages back in the Clan ever had so much trouble…”

“Well I suppose if you don’t use magic for twelve years you get out of practice,” said Anders, with a sardonic smile on his face.

He shouldn’t make fun of her really, it was...sad that she’d been prevented from using magic for so long. He couldn’t help but feel a touch of jealousy all the same—if he’d been able to hide _his_ magic as a child...well, it was too late for that.

He felt a kind of chill in the air—maybe it was the breeze through the open window, but as he looked over at the Warden Commander’s bleeding hand, and the shattered lyrium bottles all around, he suspected it wasn’t. He hadn’t asked why she had hidden her magic—he’d been in the Circle long enough to guess. But the more they practised, and the more...frantic she’d become, he’d begun to suspect it was more than just a fear of the templars.

He shivered again. Perhaps it was better not to know such things after all.


End file.
